No anti-incumbency factor for BJD govt: Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik

Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik today claimed that his government would not face an anti-incumbency factor in the next state Assembly election.

There would also be no impact of the results of the Gujarat Assembly polls in Odisha, he added.

Patnaik had congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the BJP's victory in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections yesterday.

"I do not feel that the BJD will face an anti-incumbency factor because of our development programmes and welfare schemes, which are doing well in the state," the chief minister told reporters here while replying to questions on the outcome of the Gujarat election.

The next Assembly election is due in Odisha in 2019.

Patnaik said the effect of the Gujarat poll results would not even be felt in the Bijepur Assembly bypoll, the date of which was yet to be announced.

The Congress too echoed the same view.

"We gave a tough fight to the BJP in Gujarat. The victory of the BJP will certainly not have any impact in Odisha's politics," Congress' chief whip in the state Assembly Tara Prasad Bahinipati said.

Union minister and BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan, however, claimed that the saffron party's sixth consecutive victory in the Gujarat Assembly polls would have an impact in Odisha.